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Get Through Awful Classes with Help from the Library!

May 06, 2013

Sometimes in one’s schooling career, they are faced with the rather unexciting (and sometimes daunting) quest to take and pass a class or two that may not be very enjoyable. For me, there are three of those particular classes: Oral Communications and two science classes. I have to take them for my general studies requirements, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to enjoy them.

Next semester, I’m tackling one of the science classes, specifically Principles of Biology. I’ve done all I can for now: making sure I choose the nicest professors, signing up for the class, and pricing the textbook. Sometimes, I even find that not only do I have to spend an insane amount of money on the textbook, but I also find that the textbook doesn’t even help me!

It’s a problem not many professors talk about openly – the fact that sometimes even the "best" textbooks can explain things strangely or flat-out not explain important things at all. For a student (and I can attest to it first hand), this can be extremely frustrating. To me, you have three options from that point on: search the Internet and hope you don’t run across some troll giving you wrong information, fly by the seat of your pants and hope you’ll guess correctly on the tests, or look for another book.

So, many times, I’ve found the answer I’ve been looking for in a library book. I have to admit, I didn’t used to use the nonfiction sections much at all. Since starting college, I’ve used it much more to make ends meet when textbooks just don’t explain properly. The Library is a very dollar-efficient way of getting good grades in those tough classes that, no matter what you try, you just cannot enjoy.